No excuses from Donegal Masters captain Brian McLaughlin

Donegal  Masters were well beaten in the All-Ireland decider as kingpins Tyrone showed their class to run out winners in the final by 5-10 to 1-9.

The Donegal side gave everything they had but it wasn’t going to be their day. Three first half goals were a factor and each of them would have been disappointing from a Donegal perspective, but in the overall scheme of things the best team won clearly as was admitted candidly by Donegal captain, Brian McLaughlin, when giving his reaction to Donegallive after the game.

“They are worthy champions. They are a well-oiled machine but then you don’t win five championships in-a-row for nothing, but we knew that coming into the game.

“We were trying early on to keep the scores down and keep the goals out but when we gave away the first and then the second, it was an uphill battle after that,” said McLaughlin.

After conceding two early goals, Donegal did regroup but found it difficult to get forward against the wind and a tight Tyrone defence.

“Listen, we had plenty of ball but we weren’t getting forward well enough; we weren’t getting through the lines. We were getting up to the half-forward line, the full-forward line but then getting overturned. Whenever that was happening, they were punishing us hard too. They were going straight down the field and getting scores.”

Donegal were still in the game at the end of the first quarter but Tyrone added 1-4 in the second quarter to put the game to bed and lead by 11 at the break.

“That kinda killed the game at that stage. We were comfortable when it was 2-2 to 0-2, we were still in the game and they were playing with the good breeze. But the third goal was a big killer; we got overturned and they went down the field and we were exposed and stretched at the back.”

The second half started like the first for Donegal, conceding a fourth goal but they did make a fight of it after that, throwing the shackles off.

“We had to go for it and in fairness the boys showed great fight all year. It was backs to the wall against Sligo and we came back to level it late on. We fought hard there in the last 20 minutes and got a few scores on the board and made a game of it anyway.

“Listen, we are super proud of all the boys and all the management. We didn’t give up and kept going to the end.”

Overall, it has been a good year for Donegal Masters, who won the Division 3 title last year (Plate).

“It was a very enjoyable year. We started off with pre-season and we went to Glasgow and it was along with Tyrone, over to Celtic and we were well looked after on that weekend. We trained hard after that and got momentum and wins on the board.

“We won five out of our six games and made it to the semi-finals. And if you said at the start of the year that we would be in the main final we would have taken it. Look, it’s disappointing to lose on the day but we have come a long way from the start of the year,” said McLaughlin.

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“I have to praise the management of Eddie Crawford, he has been brilliant in pulling us all together; him and Paul (Gallagher), Archie (Ruairi McLaughlin) and John Joe O’Shea. 

“We knew coming into the final that we were facing a really, really good team. They have so many (great) players, Stephen O’Neill and Conor Gormley and the boys, good club players as well. 

“Listen, we have no excuses on the day. We were beaten by the better team and good luck to Tyrone,” said the Donegal captain.